Three already interested in privatization of Petrobaltic

The Treasury is soon to announce a tender for a consultant to advise on the privatization of gas and crude oil exploration company Petrobaltic. According to Magdalena Nienaltowska from the Treasury press office, the final details of the conditions of the tender are currently under discussion. Even though the Petrobaltic privatization process is still at a very early stage, three parties are already reported to be interested. Among them is Invest-Petro, a company formed by Petrobaltic employees with initial capital of zl.1 million. "We are aware that in order to take over Petrobaltic a lot more resources are needed. However, it is too early to talk about the details of the financing of our project," said Zdzislaw Siamion, chief Petrobaltic organization and management specialist. The other two interested parties are Poland's biggest refineries, PKN Orlen and Rafineria Gdanska (RG). Agnieszka Cybulska-Nosal from the press office of PKN Orlen, the main buyer of oil from Petrobaltic, explained that the company does not have its own exploration fields and hence its interest in bidding. Meanwhile, RG deputy president Stanislaw Pokojski described the purchase of the exploration company as a good idea, and said a decision on an offer would be taken after an assessment of Petrobaltic's financial situation. (Puls Biznesu, p. 5) P.J.